that, however, means that i have not been to school in 6 days ever since last Monday.
due to a rather unfortunate case of Tonsillitis, i had been quarantined rather abruptly to my room for the longest time in recent memory, leaving the house on only two occasions, the first to get Yoghurt 'cos i had a craving, and the second to attend Service this evening.
only because it's the IOC season and i wouldn't have been paying much attention in class even if i did go to school, my long absence has been somewhat of a blessing in disguise, giving me long stretches of time to mull over the 22 possible passages from which i pick my IOC extract this coming Friday (it's that close!), and figure out what details out of the universe of literary comment i should include in my 12 minutes (+3 minutes of engaged question responses).
i will be ever so glad when i no longer have to think about Frost, Soyinka, Owen, Angelou and Shakespeare once this friday rolls around.
the stuff i missed this week was made significantly insignificant by the fact that friday was spent celebrating National Day in school. if the rehearsal on Monday and the photos of Facebook, the quintessential social network, are anything to go by, it was probably time better spent elsewhere. there's this one particular photo with Gen Huong waving a flag with the enthusiasm one would exhibit at watching one's own fingernails grow.
but speaking of that, Friday and Saturday were significant days, not so much because the 8th of August this year was the most auspicious date by Chinese standards (because of the numerous '8's in the date) and starting the Opening Ceremony at 8minutes past 8pm would result in gold raining down from heaven, all the earth's rivers turning into champagne, melting ice-caps would reform instantly and dinosaurs would magically reappear, but more so because the 29th Olympiad and Singapore's 43rd National Day fell on those days.
of all the razzle-dazzle of both ceremonies, i was most impressed by one segment in particular - during the early parts of the Opening Ceremony (before the show sections that involved what looked like a thousand Confucius lookalikes using their scrolls as percussion instruments), there was a subtle fireworks display that spanned a sizable stretch of Beijing, showing 28 footprints making their way towards the Olympic Stadium.
i liked it for its subtlety (there really wasn't much of that) and its visual reminder of time.
so we're off to a new week, and for me that just means 4 more days to prepare for the all-important IOC.
